Tip of the Day

Darwin in Distress

This one forms part of my nature-of-religion-and-other-curiosities-department. Darwin, himself a priest, closed his seminal work “On the Origin of Species”, with the following agents with the following words :

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

By the 3^rd Edition though , the book had generated so much controversy in society that this paragraph had to be modified ever so slightly.

“There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”

This unfortunate phrase has led to gross misconceptions and propagation of false beliefs that Darwin himself was a believer. Darwin was clearly on the fence, as we seen in a letter he wrote in 1860 to Asa Gray :

“With respect to the theological view of the question: This is always painful to me. I am bewildered. I had no intention to write atheistically, but I own that I cannot see as plainly as others do, and as I should wish to do, evidence of design and beneficence on all sides of us. There seems to me too much misery in the world. I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created the Ichneumonidae with the express intention of their feeding within the living bodies of caterpillars or that a cat should play with mice... On the other hand, I cannot anyhow be contented to view this wonderful universe, and especially the nature of man, and to conclude that everything is the result of brute force. I am inclined to look at everything as resulting from designed laws, with the details, whether good or bad, left to the working out of what we may call chance.”

 

Viral ideas….funny how they work…

The Storm

Samvel Yervinyan plays the violin…and how!

For the curious, the composition is called “The Storm”.

Hmm...

Or is it.

A few days ago, I read an interesting news item from on ABC News, where a transplant patient seemed to completely acquire her donor’s immune system, even changing her blood type from Rh-ve to Rh+ve in the process. While this is quite astonishing, the way the news was presented irked me, and I wrote to the reporter, who turned out to be Australia’s National Medical Reporte Sophie Scott.

Ms. Scott was kind enough to answer, but left me wondering. My email was about the presentation of the article, yet the answer I received was completely devoid of any reference to the point of the message I sent.

Here is my email and Ms.Scott’s answer to it :

From: Nachiket Vartak

Sent: Friday, 25 January 2008 2:57 PM

To: Sophie Scott

Subject: Teen takes on donor’s immune system

Ms.Scott,

This is in reference to your article “Teen takes on donor’s immune system” on ABC News[http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/01/24/2145289.htm].

While the news is quite surprising, I could not help but notice some sensationalism injected into the article caption. “…defied modern medicine”, it says. Since you are the national medical reporter, I am sure you would agree that no “defiance” has taken place here.

It was an unexpected observation, but nothing in modern medicine suggests that it cannot or should not happen. Transplantation physiology is still a developing science, especially when it comes to stem cells. As such, no physician or scientist is going to make claims that stem cells cannot migrate, or that unexpected events such as this may not occur.

What such sensationalism does, is that it subtly undermines the confidence of the public in the science - by suggesting that the science is not perfect (which is true) to the point where it is completely stumped by the reactions and that the human body simply proves the science to be rubbish (which is not true). I hope that as a responsible journalist, you would be precise about calling unexpected events as such. If anything, such events are very promising. I’ll quote Dr.Asimov to explain why - “The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not ‘Eureka!’ (I’ve found it!), but ‘That’s funny…’”.

Sincerely,

Nachiket Vartak

From: Sophie Scott

Sent: Friday, January 25, 2008 5:03 AM

To: Nachiket Vartak

Subject: RE: Teen takes on donor’s immune system

Hi Nachiket,Thanks for your comments. I agree that transplantation is a developing science. But I don’t think excitement about yesterday’s announcement would undermine the confidence of the public in science.

I think the contrary, that it would inspire people to think that what doctors thought could not happen .. can, and that would give them great optimism about the future.

regards

sophie scott

What if Microsoft designed the iPod package?

I am not sure if this is sarcastic or real !

SamePlace : How to add Yahoo MSN AIM ICQ contacts

A lot of people have been wondering how to talk to their friends on Yahoo, MSN, AIM or ICQ networks on SamePlace.

The answer is Jabber Transports.

Here is a screencast that shows how you can add your friends from all these services using open Jabber transports.

A list of transports that were open to use as of : 26 Dec 2007 23:00 hrs CEST is as follows :

AIM Transports
# aim.zweilicht.org.org
# aim.jabber.freenet.de
# aim.jabber.me.uk

GaduGadu Transports
# gg.jabber.autocom.pl (GaduGadu)

ICQ Transports
# icq.zweilicht.org.org
# icq.gajim.org
# icq.jabber.me.uk
# icq.jabber.freenet.de
# icq.funkyjoh.de
# icq.headcounter.org
# icq.jabber.cd.chalmers.se

MSN Transports
# msn.jabber.cd.chalmers.se
# msn.jabber.me.uk
# msn.headcounter.org
# msn.gajim.org
# msn.jabber.freenet.de
# msn.zweilicht.org.org

Yahoo Transports
# yahoo.jabber.freenet.de
# yahoo.geeklife.ru

Please remember that SamePlace does not manage these transports, merely uses them. Transports may go up and down and vary in their service. In that case, all you have to do is shift to a new one.

If you're willing to contribute your transports or servers to the SamePlace community, please add it in the wiki.